An Adventure of Love

Wandering dreamily through the Great Hall of Hampton Court Palace, the beautiful eighteen-year-old Zorina bumps into a startlingly handsome well-dressed young man who immediately steals her heart. Hardly able to take hers eyes off his face, she finds herself exchanging tales with him of the ghosts that reputedly walk the Haunted Gallery. She shows him the many fascinating treasures of The Palace that she has come to think of as her own and then she finds that his name is Rudolf. And when he says to her, 'Au revoir, Zorina, if you are the Spirit of Hampton Court, you are more beautiful than any Queen or Princess who ever graced it!', a heart-stopping adventure of love begins. Zorina has no idea who he is or where he is staying or even how to contact him, but she is counting the minutes until she can see him again. But then Queen Victoria makes an announcement that dashes all the hopes that are rising in her heart. As the daughter of a Princess, she is of Royal blood and therefore must marry the much older King Otto of the Balkan Kingdom of Leothia to stop their neighbours from taking over his country by force and also maintaining the Balance of Power in Europe. She has no choice but to marry the King no matter how her heart yearns for the handsome Rudolf. Little does she know, however, that Fate has another great surprise in store for her!

Barbara Cartland was the world's most prolific novelist who wrote an amazing 723 books in her lifetime, of which no less than 644 were romantic novels with worldwide sales of over 1 billion copies and her books were translated into 36 different languages. As well as romantic novels, she wrote historical biographies, 6 autobiographies, theatrical plays and books of advice on life, love, vitamins and cookery. She wrote her first book at the age of 21 and it was called Jigsaw. It became an immediate bestseller and sold 100,000 copies in hardback in England and all over Europe in translation. Between the ages of 77 and 97 she increased her output and wrote an incredible 400 romances as the demand for her romances was so strong all over the world. She wrote her last book at the age of 97 and it was entitled perhaps prophetically The Way to Heaven. Her books have always been immensely popular in the United States where in 1976 her current books were at numbers 1 & 2 in the B. Dalton bestsellers list, a feat never achieved before or since by any author. Barbara Cartland became a legend in her own lifetime and will be best remembered for her wonderful romantic novels so loved by her millions of readers throughout the world, who have always collected her books to read again and again, especially when they feel miserable or depressed. Her books will always be treasured for their moral message, her pure and innocent heroines, her handsome and dashing heroes, her blissful happy endings and above all for her belief that the power of love is more important than anything else in everyone's life.